Don’t know if you caught my Jayhawk Conference previews, but in case you didn’t … here’s my men’s story on Garden City Community College coach Kris Baumann, and here’s my women’s story on Hutch shooting guard Heather Robben.
Impressions? Both came off well. Of course, if you’re ending up as our season preview story it usually means you’ve had some type of success. And with both subjects, they’re coming off Region VI titles … you get the point. And as for Baumann’s knickname, Bucket? He’s still not saying how he got it. Just the generic “my teammates and coaches gave it to me” line. Aside from that, I was happy with the story.
Friends redshirt freshman center Zak Vanlooy — a 7-footer from Michigan — is the subject of Tuesday’s KCAC men’s preview and UMKC transfer Jessica Halsig, who should be the man for Friends this year — is the women’s subject. Newman on Thursday.
So we knew Hutchinson C.C. running back Chris Anderson had a big game — 120 yards and 6 rushing TDs — in the No. 6 Blue Dragons’ rout of Highland on Saturday. He’s rolling in NJCAA Player of the Week honors because of that, it now appears as if seems like Hutch CC has a 1-2 running back combo of Anderson and Chris Clay, that, well … it might be hard to stop. Imagine getting in a game against those two … you spend half your time chasing the 5-foot-10, 170-pound Clay all over the place, then you spend the other half getting run over by Anderson, a Troy signee out of high school who’s clocking in at 5-10, 193. That’s called a long afternoon, and that’s why HCC leads the nation with 346.5 yards rushing per game. Somebody needs to buy that O-line some Count Chocula or some Buffalo Wild Wings.
Hutch should roll against Dodge City on Saturday — then it’s proving ground time with a 3-0 record, a top 10 ranking … and back-to-back games at No. 8 Fort Scott on Sept. 26 and then they get to host No. 5 Butler on Oct. 3. That might be a big game.
Here’s how it breaks down — an anonymous bowl committee set up a game, the Mid-America Bowl — that was supposed to be played at Wichita State’s Cessna Stadium on Dec. 6, 2009. The NJCAA said that the powers-that-be behind this game called them and said it wasn’t going to go off, and the national office didn’t get much more than that.
But, that leaves two bowl games left in Kansas. The Citizens Bank Bowl in Pittsburg (Dec. 9) that will be played at PSU’s Carnie Smith Stadium, and the Salt City Bowl in Hutchinson. Presumably, these are bowls set up to facilitate the local schools — Fort Scott for the game in Pittsburg and Hutchinson for the game in Hutch. Under that same presumption, I’m assuming the Wichita bowl game would have been a vehicle for Butler. And, of course, there’s a chance that one of these game could end up the national championship game featuring the Region VI champion, because hey, that’s where the champ has come from the last two years.
One thing to ponder: Who was behind the Wichita game and why did it fall apart? Were three games just too much for one state? Anyways … more on this later. But having these bowl games can only help. Gotta think Hutch’s new digs are set up perfectly for an event like this.
Southeast point guard Joe Mitchell is headed to Hutchinson Community College — no surprise here — he’s a guy who seems like he’d be a great fit for the Blue Dragons. I think he looks to score a little more than most Steve Eck-coached PGs, but he was definitely one of the best players in the state this season, leading the Golden Buffaloes to a second-place finish in Class 6A. Was he the best guard in the state? I’m having trouble thinking of anybody that was better.
Here’s the release from Hutchinson SID Steve Carpenter:
Heard the Binghamton rumors. Heard the Cornell rumors. Now Phillipsburg’s Dylan Frantz is headed to Hutchinson Community College — which makes me think he’s got his sights set on becoming a mid-major Division I player, or higher. Either way, if Steve Eck thinks he can play for him … that’s a pretty nice endorsement right there. And a pretty good chance he’ll get him ready for the next level.
It’s Eck’s first signing at HCC — and a nice fit for the 6-foot-2 guard, who was a Class 3A honorable mention all-state pick after averaging 17.8 ppg this season. I’m thinking there’s more signings on the way for Eck and the Blue Dragons so stay tuned.
I finally got a chance to catch up with former Wichita Southeast point guard Adonis Gantt, who just completed his freshman season at Cowley — and he was in decidedly good spirits Monday afternoon.
So with that said, let me get this out of the way first: He wants to transfer to Hutchinson Community College.
This one surprised me because I thought he had to stay for two years because of a problem with the NCAA Clearinghouse — but Hutchinson Community College combo guard Darius Johnson-Odom has signed with Marquette, where he’ll have three years of eligibility remaining. DJO is a 6-foot-2 wunderkind. Dude can do it all and seems like he has it together off the court. Averaged 21.6 for the Blue Dragons this season and was one of the most sought-after juco guards in the country after a first-team all-league and Jayhawk West freshman of the year campaign.
So, you might ask, how does this affect Steve Eck’s reclamation project at HCC?
Got a couple of phone calls from parents this afternoon — parents who would prefer to remain unnamed, for now — telling me their side of the story about what’s going on in the aftermath of Steve Eck’s defection from Cowley College to Hutchinson Community College.
So here’s the skinny: Six kids want out, I won’t put their names out there yet, but they’re high profile kids with Division I talent. In-staters and out-of-staters alike. And some, if not all, want to join Eck at Hutch.
One problem. The parents are telling me that Cowley is not going to grant their releases/transfer exemptions, which means they would have to sit out for a year. The two parents I talked to said they had meetings with Cowley AD Tom Saia and new head coach Tommy DeSalme to let them know their kids wanted out and that was when they got denied. According to KJCCC commish Bryce Roderick, the only guaranteed out you have as a transfer within the Jayhawk is if you transfer to a junior college in your home county. Ex.: If you go to Garden City High School then go play for Hutch, then you can transfer to Garden City C.C. and you don’t have to sit out. That won’t help in most of the cases here.
My take? It is well within Cowley’s right not to let them out. But should they? I don’t know enough about it yet to say. There’s a lot of gray area in this bad boy. I’ll be on the horn with the respective parties this weekend.
But I know this: This one is going to get ugly before it’s all said and done.
We just don’t know who it is just yet — but there’s a press conference on Wednesday in Hutch to announce. I’ve got a good idea but nothing I can confirm … although I’m burning up the phones trying right now. But I’ll tell you this — It’s definitely one of these guys.
More as it comes … here’s the release from HCC on the matter that I got in e-mail a couple o f minutes ago:
Media:
The Hutchinson Community College athletic department will have a news conference at Noon on Wednesday to announce its new men’s basketball coach.
The news conference will be in the Blue Dragon Room of the Parker Student Union.
The HCC athletic department will not comment on this subject until the news conference on Wednesday.
Quick question: If Johnny Be Good – aka Bryce Brown — picks Kansas State on Monday, would that make him more popular than the governor? Just a question … talk amongst yourselves.
Ok, back on topic.
Kansas is Ground Zero for NJCAA national tournaments this week, with the men at the Sports Arena in Hutchinson and the women at Salina’s Bicentennial Center. Your Region VI teams — Garden City for the men and Hutchinson for the women — don’t have a lot of name recognition but both have solid resumes. I talked to both coaches on Sunday night, Garden City’s Kris Baumann and Hutchinson’s John Ontjes, along with first-team all-Jayhawk West pick Heather Robben, a Maize H.S. product.
